X is side-eyeing Zayn Malik for declaring that he never loved Gigi Hadid — again
Oh, Zayn Malik. You really went on Call Her Daddy and chose violence in the most media-trained tone possible.
On Alex Cooper’s podcast, the singer was asked whether he still stood by a comment he made two years ago — that he didn’t think he had ever truly been in love. Very politely, very gently, he said yes. He explained that his understanding of love keeps evolving; what he once thought was love might, in hindsight, have been lust. “I don’t feel like it was love,” he said.
And yes, this includes Gigi Hadid — the woman he dated for roughly six years and shares a daughter, Khai, with.
To be clear, he did add what he likely thought was a cushioning clause — “I will always love G, because she’s the reason my child is on this Earth, and I have the utmost respect for her. I will always love her, but I don’t know if I was ever IN love with her.”
You could almost hear the collective gasp echo across the internet.
‘A humiliation ritual’
Within minutes, X users were spiralling, not just about Malik and Hadid, but about relationships with men in general.
“Relationships with men are a humiliation ritual,” one user wrote, summing up the mood in seven bleak words.
“Imagine being in a relationship and having a kid together just for him to say that he was never in love with you. Men are just evil,” another posted.
The outrage wasn’t just about heartbreak. It was about the timeline. Six years. A pregnancy. A very public relationship. A very public breakup. And then, years later, a podcast epiphany that maybe it was never love at all.
Others zeroed in on the particular cruelty of saying this after a woman has gone through pregnancy and childbirth.
Another added, “I’m intrigued by how having a baby daddy sucks regardless of your socioeconomic status.” Because if Gigi Hadid — supermodel, generational wealth, global brand — isn’t safe from this particular genre of male introspection, then who is?
Desi discourse enters the chat
Some Pakistani users leaned into a sense of self-aware cynicism about desi men. “British Pakistani men…” one wrote ominously.
Another quipped, “you take the man out of Pakistan not the Pakistan out the man.”
One tweet read, “Pakistani mard ho aur bakwas na karay aisa ho hi nai sakta (A Pakistani man who doesn’t spew nonsense? Impossible).”
Was it honesty or unnecessary disclosure?
To be fair, Malik didn’t insult Hadid. He said he respected her and that he will always love her. He didn’t weaponise the past. He also goes on to say that he doesn’t think he was in love with Gigi because “otherwise I would’ve been a better version of myself”.
But the internet isn’t reacting to his tone — it’s reacting to implication. Because what women are hearing isn’t philosophical growth, it’s, “you built a life with me and later decided it wasn’t love”.
There’s something particularly brutal about reframing a shared history unilaterally, on a platform with millions of listeners. It’s one thing to privately realise you misunderstood your own emotions. It’s another to declare it as canon.
And so the discourse rolls on — less about this couple specifically, and more about the broader horror genre that is modern romance.
In 2026, apparently, even global pop stars are not immune from the age-old plot twist — was it love? Or was it just vibes?
Comments